MS, stress and anxiety – how your emotions can impact you and helpful coping methods

Multiple sclerosis (MS) brings with it many worries, and your emotions around it can have a big impact on your day-to-day life.

In this blog we’ll go into detail on where stress and anxiety can stem from and methods to help manage these feelings, hopefully making your MS a bit more manageable.

Does stress impact MS?

A direct correlation between relapses or worsening of symptoms and stress is still up for debate, but there are some things we can say for certain.

Stress, much like the symptoms of MS, can be experienced in a variety of ways. From tension headaches to dramatic changes in mood, it is very possible that the way you manage stressful feelings can be confused for multiple sclerosis.

Much like stress influencing relapses, there is also a lot of debate around if stressful situations can influence the development of the disease. Again, it is still being researched so there aren’t any solid conclusions just yet.

Can anxiety impact MS too?

Whilst being a very overwhelming feeling, anxiousness doesn’t currently appear to influence the onset of MS (in its development or succession of symptoms).

This doesn’t mean to say however that anxiety can’t make an impact. MS is for many a source of anxiety, ranging from the fear of when a relapse might occur to how your mobility might be impacted in the future.

Anxiety is a very normal feeling and thoughts like these are as well, so try your best not to frighten yourself about feeling anxious as this can become an aggressive cycle (i.e feeling anxious about feeling anxious).

Ways you can manage stress and anxiety better

Normal feelings like these can be managed in a variety of ways, some of which listed here we think can be a big help.

Practising mindfulness

You can easily get carried away with negative thoughts which often makes it difficult to ground yourself to what you’re actually living in. This is where mindfulness comes in!

Mindfulness involves doing an activity that makes it easier to forget about stressful and anxious thoughts for a moment. Something like meditation and walking with intent on observing your surroundings are good ways of practicing this. Just focusing on something else for a short time can make a big difference.

Exercise

Unneeded adrenaline and cortisol produced by anxiety are what make anxious feelings bubble up, and exercise is a great way of using these up.

Something like jogging or running are fantastic methods of exercise, in addition to activities like chair yoga for people with less mobility (the more physically exhausting the better).

Taking yourself out of stressful situations

Sometimes it might be worth thinking about removing yourself from situations where stress is unnecessary or just not worth going through since it is impacting your life.

Don’t be afraid to say no to something or someone if you think what they are asking will increase your stress levels, especially if it isn’t essential.

Being social

Whilst you might not feel like it all the time, being around your favourite people makes dealing with stress and anxiety a bit easier. However, don’t make yourself feel uncomfortable as this can do the opposite (heightening your stress and anxiety). You may need to push yourself into these kinds of situations, but only do so when you feel like you can.

It might be as simple as sharing how you’re feeling with a family member or just having a nice time out with some friends – they all make a positive difference in one way or another.

Keep a diary

Writing in a diary that tracks what you feel stressed out or anxious about can make identifying causes of these emotions easier to understand. Making a conscience effort to record your thoughts and reviewing them after a period of time enables you to identify what you can take out or perhaps do differently going forward.

Staying grateful for what you have

Lastly, and possibly one of the harder ones on this list to practice, is to try be as grateful as possible for what you do have instead of what you don’t.

Thinking about these kinds of things consistently can make the hardest days that bit easier.